Social Revolution (Weekly No. 12)

While researching what classes to take back in August for my first semester in this program, I have to admit, I was hesitant to take a class on Social Media. What possibly could I learn? I have spent so much of my time on Blogger, on Twitter, on Facebook, on Tumblr, etc. I am, by no means, an expert, but I felt like I was a social media pro going into this class. Little did I know, I would learn so much.

Taking this class made me approach and question social media in an entirely new way: What is it exactly that I am getting by utilizing all of these social media tools? Why do I invest so much of my time using these tools? Is it worth it? It truly made me analyze myself and my behavior, and the only logical answer I could come up with to explain my excessive usage of social media tools was connectivity. Go figure.

According to freedictionary.com connectivity is defined as:

1. The quality or condition of being connected or connective.
2. The ability to make and maintain a connection between two or more points in a telecommunications system. 

Social media makes me feel connected to people. It makes me feel social, even when I'm sitting at home on my couch alone. Again, go figure.

This brings me to William Powers' Hamlet's Blackberry. How is it that I am alone, but still feel connected to people? And I don't mean an emotional or spiritual connection. If these tools didn't exist, would I feel lonely when alone? Probably not, but you get what I'm saying. Hamlet's Blackberry laments that technology is pulling us away from real life by our overwhelming need to be connected all the time. Powers suggests that such alone time should be used for reflection, a time to smell the roses, a time to enjoy life. Put it down and walk away. Now, I definitely need to put my Blackberry down and walk away, but I can also argue that there have been countless times I have been alone with my Blackberry and have had revelations. Revelations that have allowed me to enjoy life to an even greater extent. My Blackberry practically houses a virtual diary within the Notes application -- there you can find to do lists, recipes, and some of my deepest thoughts -- and even my personal statement that I wrote for my application for admittance into this program. It's a healthy relationship. Well, kind of, sort of...

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Although I feel like I have become a slave to technology and social media, it truly has--as cheesy as this sounds--helped me to discover a layer of myself I didn't know three-four years ago. And that's what I think is good and bad about social media.

I certainly haven't discovered who I am through Facebook, but I have cringed at past outfits. Seriously, what was I thinking? However, Facebook has allowed me to connect to my social world outside of my immediate friends. Frankly, something that wouldn't be possible without it because I wouldn't put in the effort. Oddly enough, Facebook has also moved me to protect those relationships and friendships that I hold dear to me by not discussing or displaying every little detail about them including our status. I find it rather strange that I am more scared of Facebook than Google. Facebook has turned me into an intensely private person when it comes to my real life. Of course I fell into the trap, as everyone has, and have shared my life on Facebook through pictures and words, but for the most part, those days are long gone. I can't tell you how many times I deactivated my account to later return. I'm currently on. Three weeks from now? We'll see.

My blog poor & fly helped me channel one of my greatest passions-fashion, and the other allows me to share photography, music and quotes, also things I am extremely passionate about. To me, this is a good thing, because these are the things I am passionate about and none of them causes harm to anyone, not even myself. Except for maybe sore eyes.

Then I think about the people who take advantage of social media and abuse the tools. Last week's lesson was frightful; it showed me that we are all passionate about things, but not everyone is passionate about quotes and fashion and music. Some are passionate about harming and killing others. That was painful to learn. I remember Kate whispered to me: "What if Jesus had a YouTube feed?" Clearly, social media has done some amazing things, but it has also turned some incredibly dangerous people into easily accessible and manipulative forces. Very scary, but therein lies the power of social media -- it is readily available to anyone who wishes to use the tools.

I think to determine if social media does more harm than good is like asking if people do more harm than good? After all, we are the operators of these tools. In my opinion the good outweighs the bad. Here's the way I see it: there will always be people who violate morality, take advantage of things and people, break the law and want to cause harm to others; that is why we have a judicial system and prisons. But I'd like to think, and maybe this is a naive thought, that most people are good at heart and have pure intentions in life, especially when using social media tools.

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Life isn't meant to be lived in isolation; it truly fascinates me how social media has caused a social revolution -- the name of this blog, if you haven't noticed. Never before have we ever been so connected to people whether they're right next door or in Japan. Whether or not it is a true connection is another story, but for the sake of this class and final blog post, it is still a connection. Never before have we had so much information at our disposal. Social media has allowed so many of us to gain so much knowledge about people, things, governments, places, etc. It has minimized the time we spend searching for things and maximizes the time we spend connecting -- or attempting to connect -- to others.

In an ever increasingly social world, I don't see the social media "fad" fading away any time soon. It is intensifying at a pace that is difficult to keep up with and it is almost hard to believe that there was a time when these tools didn't exist.

I never approached social media as more than just a user--as a bargainer--but I was really surprised to learn how much depth this sphere had. Exploring social media has been adventurous, scary and even self-revealing. I appreciate the lessons that this class has taught me and I value the challenges that came along with learning about social media and the people behind it -- all of us. We are all a part of this social revolution.

My Team (Response No. 3)

Being the only girl to play sports growing up within a blended family of six girls and one boy (think Kardashians), you can imagine how happy my father was. I remember "training" with my brother in our basement where we had a treadmill, punching bag and a weight bench. My brother was a football and basketball player; my sport of choice- lacrosse. Oddly enough, and unlike many parents, my parents never pushed me to play sports, it was something I took on myself. They'd much rather me play the cello and that be that.

During my high-school's off-season, I played on a traveling club team that traveled up and down the east coast participating in tournament after tournament. Talk about exhausting! I was captain of my club team along with a friend of mine who attended a rival school. She went on to play for Virginia Tech. I turned down scholarships because for the first time in my life, I didn't want to do anything but be a student. That being said, the idea of sports and how they unite countries, communities, even families has always been something that fascinated me. I even studied sport management in undergrad at Florida State (Yes, we did just lose to Tech in the ACC championship game.). I was convinced I was going to be the female equivalent of Jerry Maguire. Hey, who knows what the future holds. Eh, I'm actually over the sports industry, at lease the idea of working within the sports industry. I much prefer the fan side. This brings me to Jessie's post on her beloved E-A-G-L-E-S.

While I can't say I'm a fan of the Eagles, I will say that Michael Vick has really impressed me with his performance; and that's coming from a girl who owns two pit-bulls! We all deserve forgiveness and an opportunity at redemption. But enough with that. Let's talk about MY teams! Well, actually, my dad's teams:

1. The Washington Redskins
2. The Georgetown Hoyas
3. The Baltimore Orioles
4. Wait for it............the Los Angeles Lakers

Seriously? The Lakers? Now, I can understand the Redskins, the Hoyas, and the Orioles being that he's from suburbs of DC, but the Los Angeles Lakers? I still haven't figured it out...

It truly fascinates me how people come to identify with place. Italians identify with Italy because that's where their heritage lies. I mean, it makes complete sense. But how someone from New York or even North Dakota is a fan of the Dallas Cowboys just blows my mind away! And let me tell you, there are so many "Dallas fans." I will say this though, my father has been a fan of the Lakers since he was a little boy and I don't think any losing season (they never lose) will change that, because it sure doesn't change a thing for Redskins fans!

Anyways, I've talked about everything besides what I initially wanted to discuss. For the first time in my entire life, I can finally cheer for the Hoyas as a student! Woohooo! I grew up a Hoya fan, largely because of my father, but always felt so disconnected because, let's face it, I was never a part of the student body. Even though that didn't stop me from cheering for Georgetown while I was attending FSU. Needless to say, I am really excited for the season! We're 9-0, baby! I am especially thrilled to attend a game with my father. When I was accepted into this program, he was beaming with pride; it will be really special to cheer for GU with him by my side since he grew up loving the Hoyas and I am now a Hoya. Georgetown is finally my team! (:

Tumblr Monsters (Response No. 2)

First and foremost, I was thrilled to read Tiffani's response to my personal post. I was really touched to see that someone was moved by my friend's story and reached into their very own thankful bucket to hand out thanks. You'd be surprised to know that I sent the link to that post to my hurt friend, and he was also moved; now I'm not going to say he cried, but... he did. He also sent the post over to his mother, who also cried; she even printed the story out to share with her family, friends, and co-workers (she's also a police officer in Chicago). Reading your post and seeing his reaction was such a neat moment for me. I acheived what I set out to do by writing that post--encourage people to reflect and give thanks--and I was really happy to read how thankful you are for your life.

But, honey, can we talk about your new-found love for Tumblr?! All I can say is- Welcome to other side! How awesome is Tumblr? I was just expressing how thankful I was for Tumblr in our assigned post from Thanksgiving week! Everything you mentioned in your post is exactly how I feel about Tumblr, and why I am an obsessed Tumblr monster!

"I think what I love most about Tumblr is the versatility for posting. You don’t always have to do a full text post. It can be a quote, audio, video or perhaps the best feature, a reblog. I’m just starting out but I’ve found some great people on Tumblr that I reblog all the time. I also love it because I’m able to post great YouTube videos I’ve found or new songs I love."

The reasons you love Tumblr, is exactly why I love Tumblr. The versatility for posting is hands-down Tumblr's BEST feature. Likewise, the format of Tumblr is unmatched anywhere else on the web (to my knowledge), and I what I love the most about Tumblr. Don't you find it fascinating that we all use the same tools and yet everyone's blog is so different, unique, and one-of-a-kind? I also love that we are allowed to tweak our blogs in every possible way -- which I understand if you're familiar with HTML you can do, but the average person is probably not that familiar -- Tumblr makes it SUPER easy to customize your blog and make them visually captivating.

You also mentioned that the easiness of posting is the reason you post as much as you do. Uh, I definitely have almost 4,000 posts, and I promise I do not live on my computer; I do, however, live on my phone. I have to ask, do you have the Tumblr application on your Blackberry? I don't even know what type of phone you have, but let me tell you, if you have a Blackberry, download it! It is DIVINE! I am constantly posting quotes, pictures, lyrics, and even "re-blogging" some of my favorite Tumblrs. It is, no lie, the best application I have on my phone.

Like you, I've started blogs before on other sites and had a hard time keeping up with them. I mentioned that poor & fly was my most successful blog in another post and how it sadly became boring; but to be honest, it started to feel like a full-time job! Monetizing poor & fly was always an objective of mine, so I felt like all of the exhaustion and long nights were worth it, but the amount of money I was generating was dismal. So not worth it! Although I loved everything about poor & fly, I grew tired of it because it thoroughly exhausted me and I started to feel guilty about not posting stories; the bags underneath my eyes quickly changed my mind. Now I have different plans for poor & fly... something definitely way more exciting than posting about $5 rings I discovered at Forever 21. Although that's fun and dandy, it just got old.

I've been on Tumblr for almost a year now, and I know it sounds cheesy, but it excites me every day. Every day I carve out time to sit down at my desk and peruse some of my favorite Tumblr blogs. I genuinely look forward to it...it's one of my favorite things to do. I've already discovered yours, and I'm already a follower! (: I've learned that we have a few things in common, like our musical taste. Marsha Ambrosius wrote my favorite Michael Jackson song, ever! Butterflies. She's insanely talented. I've posted it on here before.

Like Lady Gaga dubbed her obsessed fans "Little Monsters," I have dubbed myself, inspired by you, a "Tumblr Monster." I know I sound lame, but there really are so many reasons to love Tumblr. I'm hooked!

Oh, by the way, about statistics, there is a way you can do that! ;)